Bud Byrd: Time to merge law enforcement

Monday

Apr 27, 2009 at 12:01 AM

Unification of the police departments is a sure way to streamline versus the more draconian service cuts that will become necessary as homeowners and businesses turn their realizations of slothful government practices into open rebellion against current tax policies.

By Bud ByrdSpecial to The Sun

Unification of county and city services: Who is for it? Who is against it?The county and city commissions seem to prefer the status quo. In unifying police departments, the county and city managers would have to give up a large segment of their turf to a combined police agency, perhaps run by an independent county-wide police commissioner or executive. Many current local elected officials and administrators would view themselves as losers in the combination.Elected officials and senior bureaucrats in government have one measure of respective self-worth, the amount of turf that each controls. Giving up turf is like giving up stars on your collar or gold stripes on your sleeve; distasteful, to be fought against, stomped into the ground and covered over.Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan’s paraphrased comment in the April 19 Sun article by Cindy Swirko is a case in point: Hanrahan’s questioning whether or not combining the departments would save any money is a shot across the bow to those who wish to pursue the matter. We need to look at an independently constructed business case before the matter is dismissed.Surely, it is well understood in government that budgets will be cut somewhere; either by cutting services or by streamlining the delivery of services. Change will occur as people come to grips with multiple governments taxing them to provide the same service. Unification of the police departments is a sure way to streamline versus the more draconian service cuts that will become necessary as homeowners and businesses turn their realizations of slothful government practices into open rebellion against current tax policies.An article published in a recent edition of the online Business Insider magazine depicts the plight of our country, and by deduction illustrates the financial straits of our county and cities. Henry Blodget’s article, “Home Equity ATMs Run Out of Cash,” includes a chart by John Mauldin, a highly respected financial expert and author. Mauldin’s chart demonstrates that a vast portion, the largest part of our country’s Gross National Product growth for the first decade of the 21st century has come, not from productivity improvements, but rather from the cashing out of equity from our homes.We citizens have spent, according to some, about 45 percent more than we have earned over the past several years. Much of this extra cash came from home equity, some came from our tapped-out credit cards. If government hasn’t noticed, in 2007, 2008 and continuing in 2009, home equity has shrunk to below market value for many homeowners.Credit lines are being curtailed. Credit cards are being cancelled by banks in unparalleled numbers.Low, zero or negative growth disallows government maintaining the pattern of past escalating spending habits. Something must give.Isn’t it time that local government put on its collective thinking cap, did what is right for its citizens, and discontinued the practice of government officials foolishly spending public funds while taking care of their own selfish, aggrandizing interests that inevitably lead to more and more, oftentimes duplicated, government spending?Hopefully, the people of our county will say “enough is enough.” It is high time that citizens demand that local public officials develop a higher level of respect for the well-being of the people of the county and initiate an enlightened approach to government fiscal responsibility.Unification of the county police forces would be a welcome first step.Bud Byrd lives in the city of Alachua.